BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS(English)

1. Why is Biblical Interpretation Necessary?

2. Text and the Process of Communication

3. Early Biblical Interpretation

4. Hearing and Seeing the Word of God

5. The Various Senses of the Bible

6. Philosphical and Theological Hermeneutics

7. DEI VERBUM - Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation

8. The Interpretation of the Bible in the Church

9. Benedict XVI Verbum Domini

10. Exegetical Methods and Approaches

11. Finality of Revelation

Contents

1. Interpretation by speech itself: incapacity of

human language to express God’s mind

2. Interpretation through the translation:

3. Interpretation by commentary and explanation:

4. Exegesis: Greek verb Exegeomai means to draw

out, to develop, to explain.

Hermeneutics

Why is Biblical Interpretation Necessary?

The Bible was originally written to people who lived

in a different place, in a very different culture,

Because the Bible is God’s word in history revealed to

people

The goal of interpretation is to discover the original

intended meaning of a passage

The key to doing good exegesis is reading the text

very carefully

The Present Need of Biblical

Interpretation and the Problems

1. Mythical Language

2. Contradictions and Repetitions in Biblical Accounts:

i) In Gen 1:1-1:2:4a (P) and 2:4b-25 (J)

ii) In the floor stories (Gen 6-9)

3. The Problem of Religious Language

4. There are Obscure and Difficult Passages in the Bible

Text and the Process of Communication

Identification of Literary Genre

Historical Narratives

Poetry and Songs

Legal Writings

Wisdom/Wise Sayings

Prophecy

Teachings of Jesus

Parables

LettersApocalypse

1. Historical Context

2. Literary Context

3. Determining the Meaning

4. Application

Observation

Presuppositions

& Pre-understandings

i) Informational Pre-understanding

ii) Attitudinal Pre-understanding

iii) Ideological Pre-understanding

iv) Methodological Pre-understanding

Certain considerations

1. The biblical texts are historical in a double sense:

a) with their own history of composition, b) They

also refer to certain specific historical events (e.g.

Monarchy, Exile).

2. The present reader is not the first reader of the

text. The text, enriched by the redactors, is the text

for interpretation.

3. Clarity concerning the purpose and the context in

which the reading takes place is important.

1. Although the text is dependent on prior readings,

the text itself functions as a separate entity within

the interpretation process.

5. As the original author is not present, the

interpretative interaction takes place between the

text and (present) reader.

6. Understanding the original speech event is the

prerequisite for its appropriation in the

contemporary situation.

Judaism of Inter-Testamental Period

Targum and Midrashim

Targumim: an Aramaic translation

Midrash has two Divisions: a) Halakah b) Haggadah

Halakah: Halakah is a commentary on torah

Haggadah – Commentary on moral issues

Pesharim: It is a type of line-by-line interpretation

Early Biblical Interpretation

New Testament

Interpretation of the OT

1. Jesus is the true and definite exegesis

of the Father

2. The exegesis of the apostolic Church,

especially St. Paul (see Gal 4:21-31-

the two wives of Abraham)

Early Church

Literal Interpretation: It Looks for the Explicit Sense of the Text

Ancient Christian Schools of Interpretation

• Theological School of Alexandria

• Antiochean School of Syria

First Stage

• The Greek “Seeing Culture

• The Hebrew “Hearing Culture

Second Stage: The Patristic Era (Alexandrean and Antiochian Schools)

Third Stage: The Medieval Period

Fourth Stage: The Reformation

Fifth Stage: From the Enlightenment to the Modern Era

Sixth Stage: Late Modern to Postmodern

Seventh Stage: A Future Threats and Hopes

Hearing and Seeing the Word of God

The literal (historical sense)

Spiritual (Christological) Sense

Typological Sense

Fuller Sense

Sensus Plenior

The Various Senses of the Bible

Philosphical and Theological Hermeneutics

• Schleiermacher (1768-1834)

•Wihelm Dilthey (1833-1911)

• Karl Barth (1886-1968)

• Rudolof Bultmann (1884-1976)

• Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

•Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

• Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-1986)

Audio Ergo SumHearing the Word of God

in the Light of Vatican II

Vatican II: Aims

Resourcement - Return to the sources

Aggiornamento (updating)

Return to source is accomplished by returning

to the Scripture and Tradition

Vorlage of DVTwo councils: Trent (1546-53) and Vatican I

(1869-70)

Three documents: Providentissimus Deus

(Nov. 18, 1893), by Leo XIII

• Divino Afflante Spiritu (Sept. 30, 1943)

by Pope Pius XII

• Sancta Mater Ecclesia: An instruction on the

Truth of the Gospels. (April 21, 1964) by PBC

DV: Major Themes

6 Chapters and 26 numbered paragraphs

Christian faith - God has revealed himself to human

In the creation itself

In the biblical testimony of sages, poets,

historians, and prophets

Especially in the humanity of Jesus

Apostolic witnesses.

Unique Features

1

Revelation is extended to Creation:

Liber natura

DV corrects the past four centuries Catholic

Church, which was not a Bible-reading or

Bible-quoting denomination. It Claims that the

church has always venerated the divine

scriptures as it has venerated the Body of the

Lord. (Cf. also LG, 7).

2.

3. Reconciliation of the Seeing and

Hearing epistemology

• The Greek “Seeing Culture:” Plato did not just

hear words; he saw them. Words like idea and

theory come ultimately from the Greek verba

videnti. An idea is a concept you can see in your

mind.

4. The divine and human authorship of the Bible is

analogous to the mystery of the incarnation

5. Not Inerrant but Without Error

The term inerrancy is not used rather says Bible

is “without error” for the truth for the sake

of our salvation.

6. Despite a perennial Marcionite temptation to

dismiss the Old Testament as irrelevant for Christians), Dei Verbum re-asserts the

authenticity of the OT.

Sie sind beidewege-hinoffnen

7 Principles of Biblical Interpretation

1. The Bible is the word of God couched in human language

and it is to be read and interpreted with the guidance of the

Holy Spirit.

2. The Bible is an inspired book having authority for the

people of Christian faith.

3. iii) The Bible represents a restricted canon of authoritative

texts and the interpretation must take into account the

unity of the whole Scripture.

7 Principles of Biblical Interpretation

4. It is given by God to his people for their edification and

salvation.

5. The Spirit who inspired the human author also guides the

community of interpreters and believers (the Church) to

understand its text.

6. Through the Bible, God continues to speak to the readers of

every generation.

7. The Bible is properly expounded only in relation to the living

tradition of the church from which it has evolved.

Benedict XVI: Verbum Domini

Purpose of Verbum Domini

Structure

Part One: Verbum Dei (The Word of God)

Interpretation of Scripture in the Church

Part Two: Verbum in Ecclesia (The Word in the Church)

Part Three: Verbum Mundo (The Word to the World)

Biblical Interpretation: Ecclesial Hermeneutic of Faith

Exegetical Methods and Approaches

Historical-Critical (Diachronic) Method

• Textual Criticism

• Source Criticism

• Tradition Criticism

• Redaction Criticism

Literary Criticism

• Linguistic and Semantic Criticism

• Form (Genre) Criticism

Modern Methods of Literary (Synchronic) Analysis

Narrative Analysis

Structuralist (semiotic) Analysis

Modern Contextual Interpretations

Reader-response criticism

8. Finality of Revelation

The continuing the story of God’s revelation

climaxes in the incarnation and the

outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

Finality under Criticism?

Reimundo Panikkar: Incarnated Jesus is only a

means for getting access to the mystery of the

Trinity. Preach Jesus alone is Jesusology, idolatry

and denial of divinity

Stanley Samartha: One should not limit Christ to

Jesus nor elevate Jesus to the status of God,

because in the former we turn Christ into a tribal

God of the Christians and in the latter we fall into

Christo-monism

There is a growing tendency among the scholars

to deny the significance of the historicity of the

Christ-event

Knitter is more concerned with Jesus’ of praxis

Hick is most concerned with Jesus’

consciousness of God.

Pluralists present Jesus not as personal but as a

metaphysical principle.

DV and Dominus IesusDefinitive and complete character of the

revelation of Jesus Christ.

In the mystery of Jesus Christ, the full revelation of divine truth is given.

DV - Christ, who is at the same time the mediator and the fullness of all revelation

Redemptoris missio - the definitive self-revelation of God is the fundamental reason why the Church is missionary

The distinction made by Dominus Iesus

between theological faith and belief (DI, 7).

Gerald O'Collins, SJ,

In one sense, to be sure, Jesus

Christ embodies and communicates the

fullness of revelation, but in another sense

he does not. The final vision of God is

still to come, as we are reminded in 1

John 3:2 and 1 Cor 13:12. The problem

arises only when we try to contradict

between what is revealed and what is yet

to be revealed.

9. Against the Bibliolatry of the Protestants DV

insisted on Prima Scriptura. It pointed out that “Sola scriptura” is :-

unbiblical

unhistorical

unworkable

Notion of canon comes from outsideScripture

Pope Damasus I: The architect of

Biblical Canon

Martin Luther

In a letter to Urlich Zwingli, he complained

bitterly about the doctrinal anarchy that was even

then rampant among Protestants: "If the world

lasts, it will be necessary, on account of the

differing interpretations of Scripture which now

exist, that to preserve the unity of faith, we

should receive the [Catholic] councils and

decrees and fly to them for refuge

Present Challenges of Hermeneutics

• New Epistemology: A shift in epistemology: active

readers give texts their meaning – It is similar to

the traditional eisegesis.

• Denial of Revelation – Both the text and the

author are insignificant

• Docetic Approach: historical issues are not really

all that important

• Deconstructionism: a theory of textual

interpretation that denies there is any single

correct of a text. two primary ideas are at work:

All truth is relative and there is no such thing as

absolute truth. The result is a subjective

interpretation of the text

Derrida:

• Distinguishes between deciphering a text to

discern its true meaning and setting the text in

play, which he regards as true to anti-metaphysics.

2. Pastoral Hermenutical Challenges

• Megale Mania

• Youth Ministry and Clericalism

• Hermeneutics of the renewal movements

• the Poor, Women and the children are

• Diminishing Birth rate and vocation, Flux to Sects